Turkish President’s signaling further detainment's is a constitutional crime. - Constitutional law expert

Turkish President’s signaling further detainment's is a constitutional crime - Constitutional law expert.(Bugun).

Constitutional law expert Prof. Dr. İbrahim Kaboğlu in shock over recent legal developments in Turkey expressing that the country is moving far behind in terms of rule of law and democracy.

Calling out to the government Kaboğlu slammed the recent terrorism charges against the prominent media figures following the December 14 raid on free press and other journalists detained over tweets; “In a country presiding over a rule of law you cannot just causally raid homes and businesses and apprehend people.”

“In the past five years we are repeatedly hearing the phrases ‘he is a journalist but he is not being arrested for journalism’ he is a lawyer but he is not being arrested for practicing law’,” expressed the constitutional law expert, criticizing the repeated pretext the government is using to justifying oppression and crack-don on dissent.

Notably President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had struck a defiant tone amidst international criticism of the December 14 raids stating that the EU should ‘mind its own business’ and that ‘more detainments will follow’.

Kaboğlu echoes the notion that such statements are a clear indicator that the President is directly influencing judicial cases, whilst violating the principles of separation of Powers. “President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statements that ‘more arrests will follow’ is tragic and “not only a clear violation of a constitution but a constitutional crime”.

There is a wide held belief that the raids and other measures of the government perceived as ‘authoritarian’ date back to late 2013, more specifically to the December 17-25 corruption probes which levied severe allegations against high level officials in the government including then Prime Minister, current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Just a few months after the corruption probe was dropped by new prosecutors, 4 prosecutors were dismissed by the country’s highest judicial body, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK).

A “judicial scandal” and “not only damaging the principle of rule of law, but destroying all ground Turkey has made and moving the country backwards” were a few adjectives the constitutional law expert used to describe the measure adding, “This is the effective termination of fair judicial process guaranteed under the 36th clause.”

One of the other measures viewed as draconian has been the National Security package which has allowed individuals to be detained by special Criminal Courts of Peace on ‘reasonable doubt’ for the vaguely defined crimes against the state and the constitution “The national security package in its entirety is a violation of the constitution. And it marks a backtrack in the freedoms we have today.”

Prof. Dr. İbrahim Kaboğlu also echoes the notion that the package reminisces the Turkey’s era of martial law describing the package as a “a serious threat.”

The constitutional law expert also slammed the recently established Criminal Courts of Peace stating “This is a violation of the constitution the rulings of these courts will return from the European Court of Human Rights.” Hmmm......Sadly in Islamist Turkey it is "L'Etat c'est moi"